The United States expressed its opposition to the conclusions of a report issued by Human Rights Watch, in which it accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip by depriving the population of clean water.
The US State Department said yesterday, Thursday, that Washington does not agree with the organization’s accusation that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but said that America “continues to put pressure” on Israel regarding this issue.
US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said, “When determining whether genocide has occurred, the legal standard is extremely high, so we oppose the conclusions of this hypothesis.”
He explained that this “does not hide the reality of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
For its part, the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) described the accusations of the organization concerned with defending human rights against Israel as “allegations,” and said that it did not agree with what was stated in the organization’s report, and that Washington “believes that a very large number of innocent people were killed or injured in the war, whether Whether Palestinians or Israelis.
Human Rights Watch said yesterday, Thursday, that Israel killed thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by depriving them of clean water, and explained that this legally amounts to an act of genocide.
A report issued by the organization stated: “This policy, which was imposed as part of the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means that the Israeli authorities have committed a crime against humanity of genocide, which continues. This policy also amounts to being considered one of the five acts of genocide.” Under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
“What we found is that the Israeli government is deliberately killing Palestinians in Gaza by depriving them of the water they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a press conference.
The report of the New York-based organization stated, “Since October 2023, the Israeli authorities have deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the sufficient amount of water needed to survive in the Gaza Strip.”
Human Rights Watch referred to a statement by then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in which he announced in October 2023 the imposition of a complete siege on Gaza, and said, “There will be no electricity, no food, no water, and no fuel. Everything is closed.”
The Human Rights Watch report – which took a full year to prepare – was based on interviews with dozens of Gaza Strip residents, employees of water and sanitation facilities, paramedics, and relief workers, in addition to satellite images, data, and analysis of photos and video clips.
It should be noted that Human Rights Watch is the second major human rights organization in a month to use the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s war on Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report concluding that Israel is committing genocide in the Strip.